With the number of mobile users expected to reach 4.68 billion in 2019, people use mobile phones for many different purposes. However, according to Statista, this has led to a major increase in apps on the leading app stores, and quality is being compromised. One such factor that has been overlooked is good user experience.

It is essential for every app publisher to know the importance of mobile user experience. Building an app that does not comply with user expectations has no purpose. Since user experience is a major criterion in judging an app’s success, creating a great app user experience depends upon revenue generation and customer satisfaction. This post covers tips on where to start.

Impact of poorly designed user experiences

User experience plays a huge role in making a mobile app successful and a core source of revenue generation. How can an app publisher know what to add for improved user experience? How do you even monitor and measure if the users are satisfied with it or not? There are a number of ways you can measure your app’s customer experience but that should be taken care of before you proceed to develop an app.

Mobile app usability suffers the most due to bad user experience and that soon leads to decrement in revenue, productivity, customer retention rates, and wastes the overall development cost of an app. The reasons for the failure of an app could be several, but negligence in user experience is one such specific factor that plays an adverse effect on an app’s success.

Here are four impacts a poor user experience can have on your bottom line:

1. Decline in efficiency

There certainly cannot be a compromise on efficiency. Developing an app with poor user experience is not fair to your users but for that reason, developers need to rely on quality tools and app development practices. Relying on intuitive solutions and app features for an app’s development is what makes a good user experience. In order to increase efficiency in the mobile app development process, it is required to be well versed about the important mobile design metrics.

2. Decreased retention

Retention is not more than your app or website’s ability to build credibility and customer loyalty. Retention rate is an essential mobile app performance metric that developers should not simply ignore. The major reason why 77% of app users stop using a certain app depends upon how the user experience was not accessible or user-friendly. For example, a video animation company would try to create an animated video that lowers a website’s bounce rate and the same case is with user retention rates and apps.

3. Impact on productivity

Poor user experience negatively affects an app development team’s productivity. If you cannot figure out where your app’s UX is falling short, then it would weaken your productivity and potential to come up with innovative solutions. Since the world today is becoming more fast-paced than ever, lack of productivity could waste a company’s precious and essential time.

4. Wastes development cost

Bad UX does not only waste your time but it also lays the overall development cost on the line. The cost to fix issues in an app’s UX tend to increase the development budget as the revenue that could have been generated through your app would then be used in its rework. An ideal example of why software fails could be that organizations prefer to spend $1 trillion on hardware or software solutions but some do not choose to complete it and that leads to a huge loss of approximately $150 billion.

How to improve your mobile user experience

It is not often that we see apps on the leading app stores disappear after a few days of public acknowledgment. Since the percentage of users that lose interest in apps within a few days is already 77%, one should know that the fault lies in the app and its functionalities. At times, the prime cause is not one factor as several reasons are involved.

Here are a few tips you can follow to improve your UX:

1. Make accessibility matter

Accessibility matters the most for both mobile apps and websites. A good UX design plays a vital role in mobile accessibility. Tailor your app’s design according to its core features or the products/services you intend to display. Once that is done, try to eliminate the notion of continuous scrolling, as your users would prefer having the key features on the main screen of the app. Also, make your content accessible to all types of people, including those with disabilities who require different interfaces and functions to engage with it.

2. Visible call to action

Having simpler navigation options, the app’s features and links should be less arduous to access so you should use this tip as your core concept for CTA. An app’s interface is different from a website and so is the design. Adding a “Call To Action” button on a website is easier since you have plenty of space but that is not the case with an app. You have to locate and add your CTA button on the screen smartly so that it is easily accessible.

3. Easier navigation options

Since the mobile layout has a different style, it is recommended to avoid multiple menu options with extra links. App users demand a simplistic user experience and if they find the design to be too complex then they surely would not want to use the app again. Do not add menu options or a menu bar that takes up a lot of space in the interface. Opt for a minimalistic approach, as less is always more with limited screen space.

4. Remove unnecessary visual elements

Unnecessary visual elements make it difficult for the users to view links, options, text, or any form of visual content on an app’s interface. This can be avoided by not adding extra visual elements like images or animations as using an app is different from using a website on your PC. The user needs to navigate through the app without any difficulty so do not forget to highlight each of the interactive elements and options you add to your app.

5. Use simplified content

If your intention is to present your app’s features to your audience and make them easily understandable then you should consider simplifying and abridging the content. Do not bloat the design with unnecessary colors and text instead keep the images, colors, and fonts as minimal as you can. Declutter additional content and make sure the menu bar, links, and labels are easy to read and access.

6. Ensure quality testing

You might know the requirements of your customers, but that is not everything. You have to understand how they interact with the app as well as user behavior. Once you are able to analyze user behavior, it becomes easy to test your app and find the relevant issues. However, to achieve this you would have to give time to user testing. It might consume a lot of your time, but it will help you understand the features your customers want.

7. Optimize for increased speed

People do not prefer to use a mobile page that takes more than three seconds to load. Knowing this fact, you should optimize your app to have fast-loading pages. However, your focus should not only be on the load time but it should also be on the interface quality. If you lessen the load, it is probable that quality and user experience can be compromised. Make sure the image sizes are small but of course, optimize the images using editing tools such as Photoshop for better quality.

The future of UX design

Hiring a good UX designer might be costly for some, but the future of mobile apps is entirely dependent upon user experience. The point is that the hurdles of redoing a poorly designed UX can be avoided if only you manage to pay heed to what is required for an app’s success.

About Gerry Wilson

Gerry Wilson is a writer and a professional mobile app developer. He transforms complex ideas into innovative approaches for app development. His user-friendly visuals are based on the creative approaches that improve the digital marketing campaigns for brand awareness.

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